FIRST Minister Alex Salmond is intending to introduce legislation to ban airguns His preference is for legislation to be introduced at Holyrood, even though the gun laws are a reserved matter.

The question of gun crime has again reached the top of the political agenda after the Rhys Jones shooting.

His death has prompted ministers on both sides of the Border to refocus their efforts on tackling the weapons culture.

The SNP fought the last Holyrood election on a commitment to "repatriate" firearms legislation to Scotland.

Subsequent talks between the SNP Executive and the government led to UK ministers promising to consider a Scotland-only ban.


Source: SNP: Scotland could have airgun ban law within a year

Just another ban that will affect the good people of the country who treat airguns with the same respect as any other firearm, and not make a blind bit of difference to those who don't give a damn about the laws.

Dude think for a minute - A dork parent allows a 12 year old to play with an air rifle

I feel that I should I have gun I would pull it out and shoot the bastards whether they were armed or not. Is this excessive ? To be honest I don't think so I could be a wimp and physically unable to protect me or mine against would be assailants.

Originally posted by moocowman
reply to post by CX

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Dude think for a minute - A dork parent allows a 12 year old to play with an air rifle, the dork kid decides to shoot his neighbors cat. Four doors down an elderly neighbor sees someone with a rifle shooting at her while she's hanging out the washing.

I'm sorry, but carrying a gun or even a knife around with you will only increase the chances of you becoming hurt. These hoodies will more likely attack you if they feel they are in danger. Why not just avoid the dark alleys instead?

I simply mean anyone that would do or threaten violence

Hey, IMO anyone who is naive enough or to frightened (like scared little schoolgirls) to defend themselves, family and property is severely lacking intellectually and definitely lacking in the trouser department.

Your more scared of your law abiding neighbors than criminals and gangs... how freeking sad..

but hey, in the UK and other enlightened (LOL) nations you get prosecuted for defending yourself and your politicians tell you to leave your "sheds" open so the thieves don't have to break the lock when they steal your stuff so you know....

Just a matter of opinion.. you think were crazy for possessing firearms and defending that right... we think you naive idiots who don't have the spine to defend yourselves, property, or society.

We used to discuss schools and nannies.

Now the main topic of conversation among my friends is who got mugged and how.

Mostly talk dwells on the sheer chutzpah with which the crimes are committed.

It's not unusual to have teenagers go through a roster of their day's activities to which they add “Oh, and I got mugged on the way home” to the list.

The difference now is that we've got so used to it that we almost take it for granted — and I speak as someone whose car was carjacked and whose house was broken into, with us in it, listening to his every stumble.

When my husband chased the robber down the street, the dutiful police officer advised us to install even more expensive security.

He took one look at my watch and suggested I go without. What next? No clothes?

When my phone was stolen from my car last week while I tried to open my front door (the culprit later s'n-word'ed when I dialled it), I came to the conclusion that crime is so rampant that ordinary citizens like us have stopped even bothering informing the police (I certainly didn't).

Chief Superintendent Mark Heath of Kensington and Chelsea reassures me that 451 personal robberies were recorded in the borough in the past 12 months: that should calm me because that is statistically fewer than the year before. Perhaps they are in a different part of the borough from where I live.

The statistics also don't match our experience because the victims have developed immunity.

We just sit in our fortresses, hoarding our worldly goods with cameras and private security guards while assuming that every Sainsbury's unloading session could end in terror.

Even my middle-aged cleaner was mugged on her three-minute journey home — and she doesn't wear a watch.

The recession may make things even worse: personal robberies were up by 25 per cent in the UK as a whole last year.

Scotland Yard's acting second-in-command, Tim Godwin, recently said that the side-effects of our economic times were already being felt by the Met: “We will get an increase in areas of criminality such as retail crime and business crime,” he said. It trickles down to wanting your wallet.

Thus my son's 13-year-old friend was mugged by a five-year-old on a tricycle for his phone.

Just a few months before, a fellow mother at my son's school in sleepy St John's Wood was mugged for her Rolex in front of the school gates with all of the mothers watching.

“His face was completely exposed and there were security guards at the school opposite,” she said. “All he said was, If you don't take the watch off, I'll stab you.'

You could tell he really didn't care that there were dozens of witnesses.

One of the other mothers was even trying to pull him off.”

Last year I watched a large man get mugged from my upstairs window.

He swatted the teenagers off (they grabbed his wallet) then kicked his car in frustration. He gave the mugging about the same degree of response as receiving a parking ticket.

Though Chief Supt Heath tells me the crime in my borough is down overall by 12 per cent, I am not convinced.

Walking into my house backwards to make sure I won't be jumped on my doorstep is not relaxing — nor is paying to have the scratch marks (a Notting Hill custom) removed from my car every six months.

We get used to everything — but why should we? We should not be paying for more security — we should be picketing.

Figures released this month show someone is attacked by a stranger every 30 seconds in Britain.

There were 1,057,000 violent attacks by strangers last year - the equivalent of 2,895 a day or 120 every hour.